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Sunshine still attempting to shed light in dark places |
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Monday, 12 March 2007 |
 Photo by Kristal Oknefski National Sunshine Week, which started as a single day, Sunshine Sunday in Fla., began across the United States on Sunday, March 11. By Adam Faderewski
National Sunshine Week, which started as a single day, Sunshine Sunday in Fla., began across the United States on Sunday, March 11.
Across the course of this week, news media, libraries, civic groups, non-profit groups, schools and others interested in the public’s “right to know” information will take part in celebrating the week. Already planned for Sunshine Week this year in Pa. is the proposed revamping of the Pennsylvania Right-to-Know Law which has been heavily criticized in the past.
Pa. has been cited by the Society of Professional Journalists as being one of the worst offenders in terms of blocking information from the light of the public eye. The abuses have gone as far as to keeping projects that are being conducted using public funds secret until they have already been approved and also charging high costs to obtain records.
News organizations have, over the past two years, ran features about different aspects of government that is open to the public’s eye as a result of Sunshine Week. In the past four years, events have expanded from a single day of recognition conducted by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors (FSNE), into a nationally-recognized week long effort to bring attention to the public about their freedoms.
Last year saw significant attention given to Sunshine Week in its second year of nation-wide recognition. The San Jose Mercury News made a push for a brighter San Jose last year, when they published their own version of a Sunshine Law that they hoped would be adopted by the San Jose City Council. The newspaper received positive feedback from the public and the law was eventually passed by the San Jose City Council in a ten to one vote, with the mayor of San Jose being the only to vote against the law.
The Associated Press affiliate in Iowa combined with then Iowa governor and now former presidential candidate Tom Vilsack to proclaim “Sunshine Week” statewide in Iowa last year. The proclamation read that “the terror-ridden and despotic regimes around the world have shown that democracy cannot flourish when the public’s right to know is compromised.”
Also in 2006, a pair of Wisconsin men recorded the first song about Sunshine Week, “The Open Records Blues.” The lyrics to the song were written by the president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council and performed by political performer, Peter Leidy. The song is available for download on the Sunshine week Web site.
State events during Sunshine Week last year, included the recognition of Sunshine Week by students of Wyoming Valley West Senior High School in Plymouth. Over the course of the week, 85 students donned Sunshine Week shirts that were designed by two of their classmates and also wore tattoos that supported open government and freedom of the press. The Herald Standard in Uniontown printed a special form for citizens to send to politicians in order to get information on Pa. spending. The paper even went so far as to print legislators’ photos, office addresses and numbers for their phone and fax.
The first rays of a National Sunshine Week could be seen at a meeting in 2003 of the American Society of Newspaper Editors at the Freedom of Information summit. The first National Sunshine Week kicked off on March 13, 2005 and was funded by John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which will continue to fund the week through 2008.
Information used in this article was found on the Sunshine Week Web site www.sunshineweek.org.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 April 2007 )
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